Bill Beckner stories, Page 92

Gino Caesar still has the game ball from the night nobody could stop him. “My mom is going to get some stats engraved on it,” the Hempfield senior running back said. “My confidence really went up after that game.” Hempfield fans were yelling, “Hail, Caesar,” when he carried 39 times...

Nick Nguyen is set to take over the coaching reins for a golf team he used to lead into the postseason. A Norwin graduate, Nguyen is the successor to the retiring Joe Martin at Thomas Jefferson University, a Division II school in Philadelphia. Martin is stepping down after 14 seasons....

Craig Spisak is a Pennsylvania State Police trooper. He will be patrolling a new dugout next baseball season. Spisak is leaving Yough after six seasons as the head baseball coach to take the same position at Norwin. He was approved at Monday night’s Norwin School Board meeting. The upper-class lure...

It is better to be the shark than the minnow, and Latrobe might be ready to raise its fin in a new classification. A conditioning drill, implemented by Wildcats team partner FSQ Sports Training, is called “sharks and minnows.” “It’s fun,” Latrobe senior tight end and linebacker Corey Boerio said....

You can keep your entitlement. If you want something, you earn it. Roughly, these are the philosophies Ryan Kimmel lives by and seeks to perpetuate on and off the football field. The hard-hitting senior at Greensburg Central Catholic has brought a blue-collar work ethic and no-nonsense approach to the Centurions,...

Perennial power Franklin Regional has a new boys soccer coach on the eve of a new season. Lukas Petersen was hired Aug. 1 to replace Thomas Louisy, who led the Panthers for one season. Petersen was set to be a second-year assistant with the Pitt men’s soccer team. He played...

Ligonier Valley will soon join a short but growing list of local high schools with an athletic hall of fame. The district’s athletic hall of fame selection committee announced plans to form the inaugural class, with the nominee process now open. Nomination forms can be found on the high school’s...

While she had other interest from NCAA Division I soccer programs, Norwin’s Reagan Casper went with the school that felt right. The incoming senior defender made a verbal pledge to play at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in Baltimore. The Retrievers play in the America East Conference. “I love the...

Austin and Bryce Butler have staged many shirt-ripping driveway basketball battles against one other over the years. But now they’re teaming up to play for their country on an international stage. The brothers from Latrobe are playing for the USA Basketball 3x3 U23 team in the FIBA 3x3 Nations League...

Mollie Kovalcin watched the film “A League of Their Own” so many times growing up, she lost count. It was part of her childhood and still holds a special place in her film collection. You might say it is “extra” special now. “I’ve probably seen it maybe 300 times, over...

Dropping to Class 5A means little to Hempfield, at least on paper. To second-year coach Mike Brown, the move — and accompanying chatter that things might ease up for the Spartans — are about as useful as a broken elevator. Going up or down doesn’t matter. “It’s all outside noise,”...

Dave Brozeski stops short of using air quotes when he talks about Norwin “dropping down” to Class 5A this football season. But his sentiment still is clear. Big picture: the change is inconsequential to the Knights. “If nothing else, it’s better for us in terms of the locality of opponents...

A game-winning hit to the gap or a highlight catch to seal a victory. That is the way Liam O’Donnell wants to go out at the PONY League World Series. He has dreamed about playing on this stage, and now he wants to make his mark. An incoming freshman at...

Adopted at age 11 and growing up in a family of eight siblings, Anna Leonard learned to make her own way through life. Basketball has been her vehicle. It is her passion. After all, her nickname is “Hoopz.” “I moved out after high school, and I have been running the...

Norwin graduate Reilly Parker is joining the women’s volleyball coaching staff at Washington & Jefferson, giving her a return to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in a new capacity. Parker was a standout player at Bethany, where she was a three-time All-PAC First Team selection. She was named the 2022 Ohio...

Emma Blair wanted to make her college commitment before the start of her senior year. The rising senior basketball standout at Latrobe didn’t want to wait around for any more Division I scholarship offers, though, so she snagged the first one on the table. Blair announced Sunday a verbal commitment...

High school football season is a hot topic again. Monday is the beginning of heat acclimatization week, a requirement of teams started in 2013 by the PIAA, marking the start of the 2022 season. While teams can’t begin full contact workouts until next Monday when training camps open, this week...

Katie Miller Gee wasn’t altogether sure what her golf life would be like after she became a mother for the first time. Could she regain her balance, her form, her touch? Moreover, could she win again? Yes, yes, yes and — yes! Miller Gee, the former Hempfield and North Carolina...

Last fall, Nate Leopold was breaking up passes, wrapping up running backs and earning all-conference accolades at John Carroll. This summer, he is helping the Houston Texans prepare for the NFL season. Leopold, a former Franklin Regional two-sport standout, is working as a team personnel assistant. He initially had plans...

Justin Huss is primed for a big junior season at Washington & Jefferson. The running back and return specialist out of Derry was named to the Division III Preseason Starting Lineup, which is presented by College Football America Yearbook — one of 27 players from NCAA Division III to make...

Pain is temporary. The long-used refrain has pushed many football players to overcome the rigors of training camp, the grind of preparation and long, sometimes injury-plagued seasons. The same words are motivating Joe Purdue to fight cancer. Purdue graduated from Franklin Regional in June. Less than two months later, during...

A teeth-gritting, 315-pound dead-lift had some angst behind it. Some pent-up irritation even. Katie Hutter was grinding through another WPIAL softball season, continuing to put up impressive numbers while making a sacrifice to move from center field to shortstop so Mt. Pleasant could increase its chances of winning. All the...

John W. Morgart, Jr. of North Huntingdon received a promotion. The successful sensai is now a fifth-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do under Grandmaster Cynthia Rothrock. Morgart, who has won on a world stage and taught dozens, is known for forming and cultivating his own style called, “Wei Son...

When Ryan Shawley played baseball for Latrobe, he was a calming voice in the dugout and an animated, rah-rah teammate on the field. Maybe that’s why he gravitated to coaching. It seemed like a natural progression, wearing a hard helmet inside the third-base box and waving runners around, or advising...

Latrobe girls soccer is primed to make a splash as it drops to WPIAL Class 3A this season. Junior Regan Reilly has a lot to do with the raised expectations. The talented forward became the third Wildcats player to make a Division I college commitment this offseason, announcing her intentions...